Roca leaves Hyderabad to join Koeman at Barcelona
nNEWDELHI: Spanish football coach Albert Roca has left Indian Super League (ISL) club Hyderabad FC (HFC) to join Ronald Koeman’s staff at Barcelona as fitness coach, both clubs announced on Saturday. Roca, who had earlier coached Bengaluru FC in I-league and ISL, had been named head coach of Hyderabad after the sacking of Phil Brown in January but had taken full charge of the team only in June.
“After lengthy deliberations, HFC has taken the decision to allow Albert Roca, who hails from Catalonia, to rejoin the club where he was part of the first team staff from 2003 to 2008,” HFC said in a release.
“For me, it’s been a tough decision. I am thankful to everyone at HFC for showing immense faith in me since I joined back in January. I am aware that all our fans will be disheartened but believe me, it’s not an easy goodbye for me either,” Roca said.
Barcelona took to Twitter to make the appointment public. “Albert Roca will be the new fitness coach working alongside @Ronaldkoeman. Barça would like to thank @Hydfcofficial for allowing Roca, who was at Barça during the Frank Rijkaard era, to return, and wishes them every success in the next @Indsuperleague,” Barca wrote.
Roca had earlier worked with Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, Galatasaray and Saudi Arabia. He joined Bengaluru as head coach in 2016 and led the team to the 2016 AFC Cup final, which they lost to Iraq’s Al-quwa Al-jawiya. Roca’s Bengaluru FC then finished fourth, seven points behind champions Aizawl,
in the 2016-17 I-league. They, however, finished that season with the Federation Cup title. A year later, Bengaluru finished top of the ISL league phase in their debut campaign in the tournament, before losing the final to Chennaiyin FC.
BARCA UNWILLING
Madrid:barcelona are unwavering in their intention to keep Lionel Messi, who told the club that he wanted to leave. Spanish media say Messi has contacted the club to try to resolve the situation, but Barcelona confirmed to Associated Press on Saturday that they will not negotiate to allow the Argentine to depart before his contract ends in 2021.
Earlier this week, Messi said he wanted to invoke a contract clause that allowed him to leave at the end of last season, but the club said the clause had already expired. A lengthy legal battle may ensue as the 33-year-old forward is expected to say the clause was valid until the end of the season, which was pushed back because of the pandemic.